Food And Talk Served Here

Aloo Paratha

My son doesn’t pronounce the letter ‘R’ in Paratha. Its ‘Payatha’ for him. Same goes for Karate – its Kayathe. This cute mispronunciation is only for some words. A Car is a Car, Traffic is Traffic and Train is a Train for him. But not Paratha and Karate! I know that its a matter of time before he picks up the right word, but I can listen forever to this cute talk :-).

It seems like yesterday that he was the cute tiny little baby in my arms and now he is already going to full day school!! Where did all the time go?

Now a days, I find it difficult to carry him for more than a few steps as he is getting too heavy for me. But I am so really clinging to this last phase of carrying him! When he comes out of the school bus, I pick him up and carry him for at least a short distance. Nothing like carrying a smiling child to make your day better. Not to forget that he kisses me when I carry him and I get to give him a biiig hug :-).

So here is the recipe for Aloo ‘Payatha’ which was my son’s lunch for the day :-)

Ingredients :

For the dough:

Wheat flour : 1 1/2 cups

Water : as required (about 1/2 to 1 cup, depending on the type of flour)

Filling:

Potatoes : 4-5 medium, cooked and mashed

Onion : 1 medium, chopped fine

Green Chillies : 3 -4, chopped very fine

Ginger Garlic Paste : 1 -2 tsp

Amchur powder : 1 tsp

Coriander powder : 1 tsp

Cumin powder : 1 tsp

Chilli Powder : 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder : 1/2 tsp

Coriander leaves : 1 -2 tbsp, finely chopped

Oil – 1 tsp

Salt : to taste

Method :

Add the flour, 1 tsp salt in a big bowl and whisk together. Add water in 1/4 cupfuls and start kneading to get a soft, but not sticky, and pliable dough. Cover and keep aside for at least half an hour.

Mash the cooked potatoes thoroughly. There shouldn’t be any lumps as they would tear the dough when rolling.

Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, when its hot add the onions and ginger garlic paste. Saute till the onions are cooked and add the masala powders – chilli, turmeric, coriander, cumin and amchur. You needn’t add all of them, add whatever you have and then do a taste test later and adjust accordingly.

Switch off the heat, add the mashed potatoes, salt, finely chopped chillies and coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly, check the seasonings and adjust according to your taste.

Roll out one ball of dough into a 3” circle lightly dusting with flour if necessary.

Place a big spoonful of the filling in the center. Bring up the sides of the circle around the filling and enclose it completely, pinching the dough on top.Flatten it a bit, dust with some flour, and roll into a thick circle of about 1/4 inch thickness. Be careful while doing this, as the filling will split out if you use too much of force while rolling them.

Heat a pan and cook the paratha on one side till brown spots appear. Flip and cook the other side too.You can add a dollop of ghee or butter on top of the paratha, if you want to.

Serve with thick yogurt and pickle or cook up a nice gravy, if you are in the mood.